


Snakes

by semele



Category: Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-01
Updated: 2013-12-01
Packaged: 2018-01-03 05:13:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1066172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/semele/pseuds/semele
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Amara teaches her Greek.</p><p>Warning: power imbalance (master/servant).</p>
            </blockquote>





	Snakes

Amara teaches her Greek.

Words flow between them slowly and painfully, filled with sounds Qetsiyah is sure she will never, ever memorize. Amara juggles impossible vowels with an impatient shrug, saying _oikos_ as if it was home, pretending that you could eat _sitos_ or die from a _sarisa_. None of this feels real.

(But not less real than the fiance Qetsiyah supposes she now has; a strange man who left together with the rest of his Macedonian army, leaving behind Amara and a bracelet conjured out of thin air. She doesn't want to think about it too much.)

Amara's tongue slithers around her like a snake from those mountains of hers, repeating words until Qetsiyah shouts at her and starts surrounding herself with images out of her own head. Amara runs away, terrified by monsters from myths different than her own, but she comes back next morning.

Qetsiyah is waiting for her.

Having grown up in a warlock's house, Amara knows what to do with things that aren't real: she takes a deep breath, touches the monster's head, and names it loudly and clearly. She circles the creature with no hesitation, eye, belly, leg, tail, finally even tooth and claw, then again and again until Qetsiyah finds herself repeating. The vowels sound like piglets' cries when she says them, so without thinking she gives the monster a proper snout, and Amara laughs, understanding the joke, or maybe finding one understandable only to herself.

There's something about her Qetsyiah doesn't want to understand.

(Something about the sound she makes when a month later Qetsyiah rests a hand on her breast, and repeats the word after her, repeats it whole, together with the sharp intake of breath. This can't be real, of course; it's never real for girls like them, and no one will ever asked what happened between them. Amara lunges forward to kiss her greedily, and Qetsyiah promises herself that this isn't the last time, it can't be. They belong to the same master, and they will do whatever he says, but maybe, just maybe, he won't notice, too busy conjuring jewels and conquering lands. They will be like monsters from old tales to him, she thinks as her clothes fall on the ground, something he won't ever think could be real, since it has nothing to do with him. Qetsyiah pulls Amara close without a word, and gets a mischevious smile in return, _shhh_ , gestures Amara with a finger on her lips. 

Qetsyiah listens, and Amara's tongue slithers around her like a snake.)


End file.
